New Law Enforcement Training Program to Reduce Animal Injury in Police Encounters to be Unveiled in Edgewood

The National Law Enforcement Center on Animal Abuse (NLECAA), its parent organization, the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), and VirTra, Inc. (Nasdaq: VTSI) today announced the Law Enforcement Dog Encounters Training (LEDET) focused on police training for dog encounters. LEDET is the first of its kind training program and includes structured coursework on engaging and deescalating dog encounters, along with simulation training with VirTra’s immersive, high-definition video training system. Together, the new training protocols help law enforcement officers learn safe interactions with domestic dogs. The LEDET program is a culmination of two years of collaboration between the National Sheriffs’ Association and law enforcement executives, legal consultants, and behavior experts to develop a gold standard for protecting officers, pets, and the public.

A press conference and media demonstration of the scenario-based trainings will be given by the Harford County (Maryland) Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday June 6, following a press conference at 10:30 a.m. ET. The Sheriff’s Office is located at 1305 Pulaski Highway, Edgewood, MD.

The LEDET scenario package will be officially rolled out in VirTra’s booth at the 2018 National Sheriffs’ Association Annual Education and Technology Expo, June 15-19 in New Orleans, LA.

Additional pilot programs are scheduled to occur in Orange County, Florida, and Oakland County, Michigan.

The LEDET program is based on canine behavior science paired with advanced officer safety measures. The combination will enable officers to make compassionate, safe decisions when interacting with pets under stressful circumstances. The course includes interactive scenarios where officers and dogs are placed in common situations. Using VirTra’s branched decision-making technology, these interactions will enable officers to experience conflict and make choices in real-time. The course focuses on the use of less- and non-lethal methods of keeping officers, the public, and pets safe during contact.

“LEDET is unique because it is the first dog training course developed by law enforcement officers, for law enforcement officers,” said Sheriff Harold Eavenson of Rockwall, Texas and President of the National Sheriffs’ Association. “Our subject matter experts are the most experienced consultants in the animal, law enforcement and legal fields when it comes to these kinds of cases and have guided policy and accountability using a combination of extensive canine behavior training and law enforcement experience. This has given us the perspective of working street cops coupled with cutting edge behavioral science and extensive experience with truly dangerous dogs.”

“Law enforcement officers want to handle their calls safely and go home at the end of their shift, while not causing any needless harm,” said John Thompson, Deputy Executive Director of the NSA. “This course will give them much needed tools to recognize and address possible conflict with dogs instead of simply shooting an animal.”

This state of the art program will be complementary to the full Law Enforcement Dog Encounters Training (LEDET) course in development by NLECAA in coordination with the Department of Justice’s COPS Office. This is the only canine encounter course endorsed by the National Sheriffs’ Association.

“Many conflicts can be defused or even avoided by understanding dog behavior,” said James Crosby, Director, Canine Encounters Training, NCLEAA. “Keeping officers and pets safe is the focus of the course. Large liability awards have resulted from officers needlessly using lethal force. We aim to keep the officers safe while reducing those deadly conflicts.”

The content package includes five interactive scenarios and an additional training module that covers the basics of canine behavior. All six scenarios/modules are available in VirTra’s content library for the V-300™ training simulator, and four modules are available for the V-180™ and V-100™ training simulators. The complementary training program is under final review, with an anticipated release later this year.

Maybe they can teach our fine Deputies and police officers how to handle with care sick dogs like, Jane, Donald, Wally, Bert…and so keep them safe when encountering uncontrollable s like him…her, whatever and keep him from spewing his nasty saliva on these posts. But seriously, I hope this is a huge step forward for the relations between the law enforcement and animal lovers and both their respective loved one….

I would be interested in knowing who the dog behavior experts they worked with are to develop this program. Understanding dog behavior is very helpful to avoid killing pets officers encounter. Unfortunately there has been excessive animal abuse in the current trigger happy shoot it if it moves police mentality. There is a wide gap between a dog barking or growling on high alert due to an intruder, or a scared/anxious dog and an actual aggressive dog that is dangerous.

Excuse me, but wouldn’t it be more appropriate to train officers to NOT shoot people of color more often than they do caucasian folks (assuming they were doing the same thing)?
This is a statistically proven fact.

Going off the top of my head, HCSO deputies have shot more white people than black people over the past several years. Almost every OIS that’s happened in Harford County that I can think of involved a white suspect.

Whether someone gets shot by the police or not is usually dictated by the suspect’s actions. Despite what the media and anti-police groups will claim, race rarely has anything to do with it.

Well your statistics and facts are wrong. More white people are wounded or killed in police involved shootings, every year, than any other race in this country. That is the fact and is probably due to there being more white people in this country than any other race. While the minority community is growing at a rapid pace, the white communities are not growing at the same rate. Eventually, a race formerly known as a minority, will eventually become the majority. Will it be black people? Will it be Latino people? Will it be mixed races? Only time will tell and it doesn’t really matter because we are ALL Americans and are main concern should be why are unarmed people of any race being gunned down? This is the REAL question. If you are armed and show hostility then a police officer should be allowed to end you. If you are unarmed and show hostility, less than lethal force should be used. In no circumstance should an unarmed person running away from police be gunned down unless the public is imposed by a real danger or continued dangerous threat from their flight. It is OK to gun down a terrorist but not a drug dealer during unarmed flight. This is how we would believe our Law Enforcement should react. However in Maryland, it is OK to gun down a drug dealer but not a terrorist during unarmed flight. Pretty screwed up. End the Criminal Procedure rules under the title of CDS and make our Law Enforcement lawful again.

That crap doesn’t work. You have to have BACON. ALL DOGS WILL GO AFTER THE BACON BEFORE THEY GO AFTER YOU! Learned this years ago from bounty hunters when we were going after bail jumpers. Most meats work as well, but BACON will get you past any dog there is.